ISO 9001:2000 and TickIT certification gives seal of approval to processes for providing high quality software and services to the life sciences
IDBS, a provider of integrated data management, analysis and decision-making software for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and agrochemical industries, says it is the first vendor in the drug discovery data management sector to receive the International Standards Organisation's ISO 9001:2000 and TickIT certifications.
This coincides with the publication of IDBS's customer survey results for 2003, which show high - and improving - levels of satisfaction with IDBS products and services among the drug discovery research community.
"Time is money in the race to discover the next blockbuster drug. "This is why data integrity, software reliability and quality support services are key criteria for data management systems in the drug research sector," commented Neil Kipling, chairman and CEO of IDBS.
"However, our quality mission will not stop at certification to the ISO9001 and TickIT quality scheme.
"We are giving serious consideration to the development of a product quality standard for drug discovery software, with the overall vision of raising the industry's quality benchmark still higher".
ISO 9001 is an internationally accepted standard that represents good management practices and aims to ensure that organisations consistently deliver the products or services that meet their clients' quality requirements.
TickIT is a software management standard which provides a set of guidelines and a production methodology for the design, development, production, installation and servicing of quality software.
Det Norske Veritas (DNV), an internationally recognised certification body, conferred IDBS's ISO 9001 and TickIT certification.
IDBS's quality manager Geoff Vorley, author of the best selling book Quality Management Principles and Practice, commented: "The enthusiasm and self motivation of all the staff was shown clearly by their commitment to the development and application of IDBS's quality management system".
Highlights of IDBS's customer satisfaction survey 2003 include: 95% of customers are satisfied with the speed with which IDBS resolves problems, and 60% rate the company as 'better' or 'much better' than other software vendors they deal with.
